Manufacturers and merchants have long attempted to determine the return on their marketing investments. For example, if a company pays a certain amount to run an advertisement in a newspaper or on a web site, the company would like to have accurate data indicating the increase in sales directly attributable to that advertisement. For a variety of reasons, this type of return data is very difficult to calculate with any degree of accuracy. This is even more difficult when the advertisement is in the form of a discount or coupon.
Hence, this invention relates to techniques for calculating such returns on marketing investments. A summary of such techniques are provided hereinafter.